For Montreal's Sami Zayn, whose real name is Rami Sebai, it's a role he takes very seriously, both as his wrestling alter ego and in his personal life.

In July, Zayn, who is a Canadian-born Syrian, threw his support behind a project close to his heart when he launched his Sami For Syria fundraising effort, a project that once funded will help provide much needed medical supplies and aid for displaced and war-ravaged Syrians in his homeland.

"For me, it's obviously a pretty personal issue because of my background," the 33-year-old said in a telephone interview while promoting his appearance at the Rogers K-Rock Centre on August 7. "My parents emigrated to Canada from Syria and I have a lot of family who are either there or have had to leave there. It's a really bad situation that's going on there, and for the longest time I wanted to do something to help."

Since 2011, Syria has been embroiled in civil unrest and violent insurgency, combined with the worst drought in history. Estimates in 2016 suggested more than half a million people have been killed in the violence, while another two million had been wounded. Millions of Syrians have been displaced and previously rare infectious diseases have spread in rebel-held areas brought on by poor sanitation and deteriorating living conditions.

Like the rest of the world, Zayn has been forced to watch the destruction and suffering from afar, but with much more uneasiness because it's happening in his family's homeland.

"Like anything else, you can feel a bit powerless," he said about wanting to do find a way to help.

That helplessness pushed him to search out a way to lend a hand. That desire led him to a group called the Syrian American Medical Society, a medical relief organization that works on the front lines of crisis relief in Syria and neighbouring countries.

"The Syrian American Medical Society (does) a lot of really wonderful work, not only at various refugee camps around Syria, but also on the ground in Syria, which is really hard to do," Zayn said of the non-political, non-profit group.

"I got in contact with them and one thing just kind of led to another and now we're on the verge of doing something really, really special, which is basically going to be able to provide health care to people that otherwise don't have access to health care. It pretty much brings medical aid right to their doorsteps. It's something that I'm really, really excited about and the fans' generosity and the support of my fellow WWE superstars with their retweets and even financial contributions in some cases has all been really overwhelming and really, really special."

Zayn launched his campaign Sami For Syria campaign with a tweet (@SamiZayn) on July 12 in a bid to not only do his part to bring aid to those suffering in his homeland, but to bring light to the situation in Syria, which he believes has been going on for so long that many people around the world have become oblivious to the severity of the situation and conditions.

"You hear the name Syria, it kind of becomes background noise, you become numb to it, you know. You just hear 13.5 million Syrians are living in distress or under siege ... and these numbers and these words kind of start not meaning anything after a while, until you're able to kind of put a human face to it. In my case, that's a lot easier because again, we're talking about my family."

Countries around the world have been taking in fleeing Syrians for years, including Canada, which took in tens of thousands of displaced Syrians last year under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, many of them right here in Kingston.

"When you talk about Canadians, or Canada, taking in refugees, I do have family that have come as refugees to Canada," Zayn said, who said he hasn't been to his family's homeland since his teenage years. "For me personally, it's heartwarming to watch. They were ordinary people, with jobs and lives and everything just like you and I, and then next thing you know their town gets destroyed, their homes get destroyed and now they have to restart a whole new life. But they're the lucky ones. They're the ones who got to come to Canada."

Zayn is using his celebrity with WWE and his huge social media reach to help gather support for his campaign.

"It's really about trying to put a face to this," he said. "That's one thing that I think I can maybe help do. I think a lot of our fanbase, a lot of people, you see what's going on in the news and you don't really know any Syrian people. I have no problem being a relatable face to people who otherwise maybe don't really know any Syrians or don't really interact with Syrians. I think if I can kind of be a representative and kind of put a face to it for people and shed a little light on what's going on, then I think that's a good thing. That's what I'm trying to do."

And do it, he has. A fundraising effort that sought to raise $50,000 US has nearly reached its goal, sitting less than $9,000 from its target, less than a month in.

Zayn admitted he was nervous when he set his target, as the $50,000 goal seemed like a huge number.

"I was scared because I asked them, 'What do we need, what's the amount of money we need in order to launch this mobile clinic?' and they said, 'Well, usually we won't be to launch it unless we have not only startup costs but enough to fund it for at least six months,'" Zayn said. "That put us in the neighbourhood of about $50,000. That's a big number, so I really didn't know how it would go. It was a little bit daunting and it was a little bit intimidating, but certainly seeing the way it was met ..."

With his fundraising goal in sight, Zayn is excited at the prospect of the help reaching Syria.

"I think one thing that's so excellent about this mobile clinic that we're trying to launch is that there's going to be such a direct result in the financial contributions, you'll be able to directly see the results," Zayn said. "The result will be this clinic and the 1,200 plus medical services they provide every month. You can directly see that, that's a very tangible result. I'm very excited about once this actually gets up and running and being able to come back and show the fans and show the donors, this is what your money did. I think that's when it will really be rewarding for me and really rewarding for the fans who have supported this."

Zayn also credited WWE, with its massive global reach, for providing a platform for its stars to make a difference in the world, a role he believes everyone should take seriously and take advantage of.

"As a company, we do a lot of things with the Special Olympics, with Make-A-Wish, and these are all really good causes," Zayn said. "One thing that I'm personally an advocate of is a lot of our WWE superstars do a lot of charitable things and a lot of them aren't as public with what they're doing versus say what I'm doing with this Sami For Syria campaign because I'm specifically trying to raise awareness and trying to raise funds."

Much of the good WWE superstars do behind the scenes, and in their personal lives, goes unnoticed, Zayn said.

"A lot of people are doing a lot of good things and they're just not really publicizing it, but I'm personally for publicizing it, not in the name of building your brand or whatever nonsense like that. It's more just about cultivating a positive message. What we do really means a lot to so many people. To me, we have this opportunity, we have this platform and we have this reach. We have the capacity and the scope to help make the world a much better place. All we've got to do is use it, all of us."

Montreal's Sami Zayn takes on WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, of Calgary, for the WWE title at the Rogers K-Rock Centre on Monday.

Zayn on the opportunity: "Any time you get to go for the WWE championship, it's always special. I think that's made twice as special if you're in your home country, just a few hours away from my hometown of Montreal. It's something I've circled on my calendar for a while now, this Montreal, Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto loop. I've been looking forward to it for a while, and I'm pretty excited about it.

Zayn on the champ: "I think you've got to give him respect because he was never a guy who was groomed or had all these expectations. I don't think anybody a year ago if you'd said Jinder Mahal would be the world champion would have believed you, but he really worked very hard and you can see the physical results of his hard work and his physique and it's really paid off for him. While I'm not a fan of some of his rhetoric, I do respect the hard work that he put in to get to where he's at."